Author
Topic: Rookie Mistake.... :-( (Read 2521 times)

i have had those too. doesn't happen so much here, but in a good year sometimes the first big swarm will be like that. later...i get little swarms with only virgins.

i have been fortunate to have mine stay intact...at least while i was watching :-D

Logged

.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I really thought they would go in the hive on their own since I saw the queen go in.

more than one queen in the swarm? two different swarms? probably time to see what's going on in your hives ;)

Kathy,I just removed at least 3 frames from every hive that I over wintered, just 3 weeks ago. This hive, I moved 6 frames from. And it still looks strong. I will try to get into the hives this week.Jim

Logged

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

Rather than introduce acquired queens you then allow the nucs to raise their own replacement Queen?

Have you always done the same, and are their are many sources locally for unrelated drones to fertilize the new Queens? (wondering about the gene pool)

ThanksDennis

Dennis,I like the way my bees came through the winter with very few mites (i opened up lots of drone cells and found very few, most had none, and their populations are explosive)and SHB's (no treatments) so I want their genetics. As far as drones are concerned, I have at least 3 other bee yards near me that my queens will mate with. Drones stay close to their home apiary usually less than a km. queens fly farther to get away from related drones. You can tell a queen that has mated with it's own drones, the brood pattern is real spotty. Briefly, the male has 2 sets of genes. One is a direct match of the queens and one is from his grand father, he has no father. If the egg is from his grandfather, it is viable, if the genes are from his mother, it is not and the bees will remove them. Hope this helps.Jim

Logged

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

Swarm catching is a blast!! But it does have its down falls. Last year I was called by a trucking company that had TWO large swarms in a tree. I asked if it was around people and he stated that the truck traffic was done for the day. I get there and sure enough, two big swarms in the tree, but after talking to the security guard she stated that trucks were still scheduled to deliver for the next couple hours..........and the swarms were within 15' of the guard shack with night time coming. I shook the swarms into a double 10 frame deep set-up. It was dark within about 15 minutes of shaking the tree out and bees were flying at the only light available.........the guard shack. After a while I decided im done and left. The guy called back the next day and said I didn't get all of the bees and there was a basket ball sized swarm in the tree......he was actually very arrogant and angry that I didn't get all the bees........oh you mean after I drove 1/2 hour away and picked up what I could of the swarms for FREE? I told him to call someone else to pick up the remainder of the bees, he threatened to spray them, I told him to have fun.

Had a lady call about two weeks ago about tons of bees in her tree, I asked if they were in a ball on the tree, she said no, they are just everywhere. I politely asked her if her beautiful tree was blooming...............she stated yes it was, I told her the bees will be gone in a couple weeks, they are just collecting food from the blooming tree......... :roll:

Thanks for the explanation Jim. Was at a bee meeting yesterday and talked to a few members about the same thing. Beautiful how the bees have figured this all out. Someone said there had been a study where drones and the queen were tagged and followed by radar. The drones fly high and stay within a range. The queen flys low ... beyond the drone range and so finds (hopefully) unrelated drones. Them bees is smart ... eh?

Thanks for the explanation Jim. Was at a bee meeting yesterday and talked to a few members about the same thing. Beautiful how the bees have figured this all out. Someone said there had been a study where drones and the queen were tagged and followed by radar. The drones fly high and stay within a range. The queen fly low ... beyond the drone range and so finds (hopefully) unrelated drones. Them bees is smart ... eh?

What is also interesting is that in a field that has a DCA. For the most part the drones will ignore a queen that is not in a rather small area that is the DCA. In other words if she is 50' outside of the actual DCA, in the same open field they do not go after her.Jim

Logged

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain